Staff photo by Cindy HepnerArchetto Construction President Vincient Archetto looks on as an excavator takes down a few bricks from the top of the old Newcomb Hospital power plant on Friday.

VINELAND — Dozens of bricks cascaded from a wall along the side of the long-useless power plant at the former Newcomb Hospital Friday, as a small crew undertook a largely ceremonial start to demolition in advance of new development.

Real work on tearing down the 5,200-square-foot power plant, in order to make way for a new entrance to the planned assisted living center officials say will replace the decommissioned hospital, will begin Monday, according to Vincent Archetto, president of Archetto Construction.

“The power plant has been useless for a while — we’re going to be taking out the boilers and putting in a new HVAC system, and then building a new entryway to the assisted living center, at the south tower,” said Archetto, a minority partner within the Danza Group LLC, which is overseeing the Newcomb assisted living project. “That’s going to be phase one.”

Phase two will be the renovation of Newcomb’s main building into the assisted living center, as well as several units for dementia patients.

According to Archetto, phase one of the project is scheduled to begin construction within 90 days. He stated current plans foresee completion 14 months after that.

Together, the two phases have an estimated cost of $25 million. Funding for phase one — itself expected to cost $15 million —has been secured through the Oppenheimer Fund, with assistance from the Vineland Urban Enterprise Zone.

“We’re going through the (financial) paperwork — you have to understand it’s a complicated process,” said Archetto, asked if Passaic-based developer Tony Danza, owner of the Danza Group, has secured all of the financing for the project. “We have the financing in progress, and we have several letters of intent.”

According to a statement from the Danza Group, the renovated hospital will be home to 108 assisted living units — including both studio and one-bedroom apartments — and 50 units dedicated to dementia patients. It will be operated through Hospicomm, a Philadelphia health care company that manages facilities throughout New Jersey.

The assisted living center is part of a much larger plan announced in 2009 to bring a medical school to Newcomb Hospital.

In May 2010, members of the president’s staff from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), toured the old hospital as local officials touted plans to bring a four-year school of osteopathic medicine to the site.

Danza at that time estimated the total project would cost between $30 million and $70 million.

Archetto on Friday stated those plans are still under discussion, but declined to comment further on the matter.

“(The Danza Group) has owned the building for about three years now, and there have been substantial carrying charges,” added Archetto. “So the decision was made to move forward on the assisted living center.”